Windsor voters OK $1.89 million spending plan

WINDSOR -- Town Meeting approved Windsor's $1.89 million fiscal 2013 spending plan and all but one of the 20 articles under consideration.

The outcome of the one measure that failed, the borrowing of $250,000 to purchase a used fire truck, wasn't officially determined until Tuesday.

The measure passed by five votes in a simple majority on Monday night, but Town Clerk Evelyn Bird said the state Division of Local Services determined on Tuesday that because the measure included borrowing, it actually needed approval by a super majority, or two-thirds, of the 49 voters who cast ballots. Under that scenario, the measure would have required a margin of 33 votes to pass.

A measure that ask voters to consider how to exclude the debt needed to purchase the fire truck from the provisions of Proposition 2 1/2 has been placed on the ballot for the annual town elections on Monday.

If that measure is approved, Bird said the town would need to schedule a special town meeting in order to consider the borrowing for the fire truck again.

Only 49 of the town's 655 registered voters, or 7 percent, voted at town meeting. All but two of the articles that did pass received unanimous votes.

Due to a mixup in figures that were included on the originally posted town meeting warrant, the amounts of some spending items were amended on the floor by the Board of Selectmen before they could be considered by voters.

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They included a $23,000 reduction in the total amount of free cash transfers that were slated for three stabilization accounts. Two of the three $10,000 transfers were eliminated completely. The third was reduced from $10,000 to $7,700.

All but two of the 20 articles under consideration received unanimous approval.

Those articles included town's biggest spending item, a $1.2 million appropriation for educational expenses, which consisted of the town's portion of the seven town Central Berkshire Regional School District's operating and capital budgets, and tuition expenses for Windsor's vocational students.

Also approved were appropriations of $296,367 for public works highway expenses, $114,631 for general government expenses, and $133,793 for miscellaneous and fixed costs.

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